Cycling through Lavender hill in South London the other day I found a road full of specialist shops which I thought would only survive in the west end. A well stocked specialist comic shop, a collectors model shop specialising in sci-fi models of the 50s onwards and a shop dealing exclusively in puppets. When was the last time you saw a puppet shop? I went inside and after a nice chat with the owner she ended up giving me a really nice hard back book about how to make puppets. Does Lavender hill exist outside London's economy? Very strange. I'm going to help out with some web work and maybe get back into making stuff again.
Pulling over to west London I queued up for about 20 minutes to view bansky's new work. A load of satyrical retakes on famous masters. A famous lanscape with a dumped rusting car inserted, another with a set of security cameras, another with a "Police: Can you help?" crime investigation board. There was also a plaster nude with tattoos and a skeleton in uniform. Running free on the floor were a whole load of rats. They looked great climbing through the eyes of the skeleton and sleeping in and around the exhibition.
To keep the rats safe, people were allowed in 6 at a time for 6 minutes only. I like to steal things no one will notice from "modern art instalations" and thought that one of Bansky's "art rats" would be a coo. I had to sign a form to say that I wouldn't touch the rats and other "insurance disclaimers" but I signed it with Mike Camel's name.
Once inside I crouched down and almost got one of the bigger rats to run up the inside of my sleeve. I could have picked up any of the sleeping rats I suppose but I didn't know where to take it once "liberated." The guy on the door patted my pockets to check me on the way out. He assured me that they all lived together harmoniously in a good home. I'd like to visit them again. They are very nice art.
Banksy's site
Do check out the rest of his graffiti. When I used to live in a squat in Hoxton, he regularly used to decorate the cars the kids burned.
Channel4News at Bansky's exhibition
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